


Carrying On In the Endgame

by professorandre1228



Series: Winchesters and the Avengers [5]
Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Supernatural, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: But I really had to, Canon Divergence for Supernatural, Introducing some ideas from outside the show, Mixing Marvel and DC, Mostly Canon for Endgame, So many more tags I'll add later, but within the fandom!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-30
Updated: 2021-01-24
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:02:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 8,614
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28419561
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/professorandre1228/pseuds/professorandre1228
Summary: When Thanos snapped, the superheroes lost many of their own.  Dean, however, lost everyone he had know except the superhero friends he and Sam had made years before.  Now, he turns to something he'd only ever half-heartedly contemplated.  If the superheroes cannot figure it out, he'll do it on his own.Until he can't.
Relationships: Dean Winchester & Sam Winchester, Tony Stark & Peter Parker, Wanda Maximoff/Vision
Series: Winchesters and the Avengers [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1527761
Comments: 17
Kudos: 31





	1. The Snap

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry this took a while to get going, but damn if I didn't finally get the ideas and motivation to get this one written. Even if you aren't excited, I am!
> 
> ****This story is currently on hiatus. I apologize but I don't have the mental capacity to do it justice. Once all the earthshattering CRAP settles, I promise, I will finish. Hugs and be safe out there!

On one side of the rift was Rowena, hunched over the bowl and the book, her hand outstretched towards the glowing, flicking slash between worlds. She was heaving in breaths between muttering the magic words that held it open and ‘come on, come on’ as a private plea to those she knew had not yet crossed into the bunker. On the other side was Sam, Dean, Gabriel, and Lucifer, facing down Michael. 

“Go, I can buy you some time,” Gabriel said, flashing a weak smile over his shoulder at Sam and a wink at Dean. Dean didn’t move either way, but Sam tried to reach for the archangel.

“Gabriel, don’t.” Dean grabbed his brother’s arm to stop him from stopping the only one powerful enough to stop Michael. Gabriel silently sent a smile of thanks to the Moose’s brother. 

“All I did on Earth was run. I’m not running any more.” He took a few more steps towards this world’s version of his brother. Still the same heavy-handed dick Michael had always been. As Michael’s face split into a cruel grin, Gabriel flipped his archangel blade in his fingers before gesturing with his head. “Go!” 

Dean yanked his younger brother towards the rift, but paused just before crossing it to watch the fight. There were several good lunges and slashes on both sides, but in the end, Michael caught him on a misstep and plunged his own archangel blade through the reformed trickster the Winchesters had begun to think of as family. Gabriel screamed out, his dying grace streaming from every wound and his eyes and mouth. Both Winchesters gasped in shock and sadness.

“Gabe, No!” “No!” Dean and Sam shouted at the same time. Michael watched with dark glee as the last grace drifted away before throwing the body backwards to the ground. Sam and Dean pull each other towards the rift, realizing there was now nothing between them and the demented archangel bent on destroying every world Chuck had left behind. Sam shoved Dean through the flickering, dying rift light, then paused again, grabbing Lucifer’s arm and shoving him away from the rift. There’s no way he’s letting the Devil himself back into their world, especially since he knows Lucifer only want to use Jack and take his powers. 

“Sam, what are you doing, man? I’m hurt. Please.” Lucifer moans, holding his injured arm, but Sam doesn’t have time to spell it out to him. In fact, he knew Lucifer knew exactly why Sam was doing it. Protecting Jack. 

“How did you think this was going to end?” The tall hunter said coldly, his fear, along with his need to protect his family making him shake as he shoved Lucifer back towards his demented AU brother, watching him stumble and fall at Michael’s feet. Sam glanced up into Michael’s eyes as the archangel noticed what Sam was doing, then turned quickly and jumped through the rift, which immediately flickered and went out just as Michael made as though to leap through. 

“No! No! Noooo!” Michael screamed and stomped, before turning slowly to pin the injured Lucifer with the full might of his hateful gaze. 

*****

In the forests outside of Wakanda and on Titan, the Avengers, the Wakandans, the Guardians, some hunters, and the armies of Thanos battled for the Infinity Stones. This war had come on so fast that all of their allies could not be brought in. Some surprises had shown up to fight on the side of Earth, but Thanos’ forces seemed to keep coming. More and more of them. Somehow, they’d all come together, even after the horrors of the civil war, even after the negotiations between the Men of Letters chapters from around the world after the British MoL attack on the Winchesters, even after working together to track down the wayward Lucifer and helping put him back into the Cage and getting Sam and Dean a little political and supernatural help to escape that fiasco, even after all the horrors that had been thrown at the heroes, this was the biggest battle for Earth any of them had seen and the stakes were higher than ever, as the outcome affected the entire universe, not just Earth. 

Thor had finally come face to face against Thanos with Stormbreaker, the axe the dwarf had made for him. He saw the completed gauntlet on the purple alien’s hand and knew he could not waste time. With a mighty hurl, it flew straight and true and buried itself into Thanos’ chest. 

“I told you,” Thor growled hatefully as he landed in front of the failing alien. “You’d die for that!” With the deaths of Loki and Heimdall in his minds eye, the thunder god grabbed Thanos’ head and forced it forward, pressing Stormbreaker deeper into his chest, staring angrily into his eyes. Thanos cried out in pain. 

“You…,” the large alien wheezed, “should have…you…,” he shifted, his voice getting stronger. “You should have gone for the head!” With a dark grin, he raised the gauntlet, his fingers ready to snap. Thor’s mouth dropped open and he threw himself forward. But it was too late. Thanos snapped. 

“NOOOOO!” Thor cried out, but everything across the universe went white. 

*****

On the Wakandan battlefield, many soldiers began to disintegrate into ashes, drifting away into nothingness. M’Baku cried out in horror as he watched his men and T’Challa’s people disappearing at random. There was confusion and horror all around. The few hunters that had joined them had all been disintegrated as well. 

*****

Thanos rose to his feet, staring at the scorched metal of the gauntlet, the stones no longer glowing. 

“What did you do?” Thor yelled in horror. “WHAT DID YOU DO?!”

But Thanos appeared not to notice him as he rose to his feet and teleported away, leaving Stormbreaker to fall forgotten to the forest floor. 

*****

On the Barton farm, Clint turned from picking up the arrows he and his daughter had shot at the target on the tree with a smile to make a joke to his wife about him being home to help pick up after the kids, his smile fell once he realized they were all gone. Vanished, only dust particles floating through the air. He jogged over to where they had been and looked around feverishly, his Hawkeye vision failing to pick up any sign of any of them. 

“Lila? Boys? Laura?” 

*****

On Titan, Mantis and Drax gave confused looks to Peter Quill before they fell away into ashes. Quill watched them in horror, then turned to Stark as StarLord also began to fade away. 

“Steady, Quill,” Tony said, eyes watching the events, trying his damnedest to figure out how to stop it and feeling his heart falling into his Iron Man boots as he realized he can’t. 

After Quill went Dr. Strange, who left a cryptic message about there being no other way to stop it. Then Peter Parker stumbled as he began to disintegrate. Tony gasped even as he tried to be calm for the genius boy he’d dragged into their world. 

“You’re all right,” Tony tried to assure the boy as he laid him down on the rough ground. 

“I don’t know what’s happening,” Peter called out, terrified. “I don’t…I don’t wanna go!” He gripped Tony’s arm, clutching at him as tears began to fall. “Mr. Stark, please. Please. I don’t wanna go. I don’t wan…” All but his head had faded away when he fell silent. The last thing he said before even his voice faded was “I’m sorry.” 

Tony fell forward from the lack of weight in his arms and looked around in disbelief. Now, it’s just him and Nebula, Thanos’ daughter who had turned on her father to fight by their side. 

“He did it,” she mutters, before falling backwards to sit on a chunk of metal behind her. She looked on sadly as Tony mourned silently. 

*****

Deep in the quantum realm, where Scott floated, waiting for Dr. Pym, Janet, and Hope be waiting upon re-entry, he was unaware of what was happening in the macro world. All three had been disintegrated, leaving him trapped. 

“Hello?” He called on the headset, “Okay, seriously, don’t joke around. Bring me up. Let’s go!” He waited for a few minutes, hearing nothing. “GUYS?”

*****

In the forest, where all the fighters had ended up being thrown or knocked down, Steve Rogers glanced over in horror to see Wanda mourning over the body of Vision, who had been deactivated when the Mind Stone had been torn from his forehead. Wanda continued to sob as she faded into ashes over the body. 

“Steve?” Bucky Barnes asked in confusion, causing him to turn and watch as Bucky’s arm disintegrated first, then the rest of him followed. 

Further away, Steve and Thor, who had migrated closer together, heard Okoye call out in distress as T’Challa faded into ashes. Rocket began chanting ‘no’ over and over once Groot had become a victim of the snap as well. Sam Wilson heard Rhodey call his name once, but before he could utter a sound, the breeze took away his ashes as well. 

“What is this?” Rhodey stuttered out as he stumbled back towards the survivors. “What the hell is happening?” 

*****

In the Lebanon bunker, Mary began pulling out beer bottles and handing them out to the survivors of the Apocalypse World, as Dean called it. They are all battered and filthy but cautiously smiling and catching their breaths. Dean and Cas stood in the doorway to the library with Charlie, with Jack hunched against the frame next to Dean. Ketch was sitting on the other side of the door, nursing a beer himself. Sam leaned against one of the old-fashioned computer consoles with a glass of whiskey, talking to Rowena, who was slouched in the same office chair she had been sitting in when they arrived through the rift. She’s obviously exhausted as she takes the sip of whiskey the tall hunter offers, then returns the tumbler. 

“It kept closing,” Rowena whined in her high Scottish brogue. “I couldn’t keep it open another five seconds.” 

“Well, you did it, Rowena,” Sam sighed as he looked around at the survivors. “You got us all here.” He was just turning his eyes back to her with a smile for the red-haired witch when he noticed her beginning to disintegrate. He dropped the tumbler, instantly drawing all their attention. “Rowena!” He yelled as he reached to grab her but his hand went right through the ashes that whisped away. 

“What the hell?” Bobby growled as several of the other survivors also began to fade into ashes. Sam, Dean, and Cas became frantic. 

“Dean?” Sam asked in horror. But with shocked gasps and cries all around them, they watched as all of the survivors faded into ashes, leaving only Team Free Will 2.0, until Cas opened his mouth to say something and disintegrated only inches from Dean. 

“Cas!?” Dean yelled, reaching for him, not even feeling the ashes that he knows he saw. 

“Guys?” Jack said quietly, just before he also faded into nothingness. That left only Sam and Dean, who began looking around, pulling out a weapon just in case it was some new big, bad that had someone gotten into the bunker. 

“Sam, what the hell just happened?” Dean growled lowly. “Sam?” He asked, turning back to look at his younger brother and freezing in shock as Sam’s angel blade disintegrated, then his fingers. Sam’s face was filled with terror and a few tears were beginning to fall as his arm, then his shoulder broke apart. “Sammy…” Dean nearly whispered, for fear that his very breath would speed it up. “I’ll get you back. Trust me, little brother. I’ll find a way.”

He brought a hand up to brush against Sam’s cheek as the last of his not-so-little brother disintegrated and drifted away. Leaving his hand where his brother had just been, he clenched his fist and waited for himself to be disintegrated as well, but the more time passed, the more he began to realize that he had been spared for some reason. Tears built up and an angry blink and sniffle saw them finally fall down his cheeks to drop off his chin. With a roar, he turned and swept the lamps, books, and bottles off the table he stood next too. Only the crashing of the items and his own voice came back to him as he curled over the table with his head between his hands and began to sob. 

*****

After Bruce and Natasha joined the survivors of the snap still milling around dazed, Steve fell to his knees and looked up in anguish.

“Oh, God!” He said. 


	2. Reconnecting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone begins to move forward and Dean reconnects with the superheroes.

In the time following, as the world moved on, the superheroes did their best to help the rest of humanity pick up the pieces. There had been no communication from the group that had gone to another planet, but Pepper refused to believe they were lost. As defacto head of Stark Industries in Tony’s absence, she set to re-establish communications with the governments around the world and set up organizations to help take a full census of who was lost in the snap and who remained and what work needed to be done to get things running smoothly again.

Rhodey had become the liaison for the military, with Steve stepping in as needed. Natasha worked with Pepper as translator and assistant. Bruce had become famous is his own right as a scientist, having Hulk’s confidence and Dr. Banner’s intelligence, and worked with scientific agencies to solve crises as they popped up around the globe. Okoye had remained in Wakanda with M’Baku to help keep the peace, especially now that they had been exposed to the rest of the world. Rocket did his best at helping out where he could and worked with Dr. Banner and Thor in the Avengers compound. His entire team, as well as his best friend had been lost so he focused all his energy on snark and repairing mechanical systems. 

Thor stayed to help them remove the wreckage of downed planes, wrecked vehicles, and other large debris. Everyone was either in shock, despairing, or angry. While no one they encountered outright blamed the superheroes, they had all seen the articles, the news programs, that asked the question about would this have happened if the superheroes had not surfaced. Thor could see it in the faces of the people he helped day to day as he worked to clear roadways for services to get through. 

Natasha had, of course, immediately tried Sam’s cell phone once the initial shock had worn off. Even though she and the hunter were no longer dating by mutual decision, he still held a place in her heart. Like Clint. Someone who would always be closer than a friend. She had tried Clint’s as well, but his curt questions about what had happened and short answers as to how things were with his family, told her enough so she left it open-ended that she’d give him space, but she’d always be here if he needed. He hadn’t even responded to that, except a breath of silence, and then the sound of the dial tone as he hung up. 

Sam’s phone had gone unanswered the first two days. On the third, a raspy voice answered.

“Hey, Natasha,” Dean’s tired voice came across the line. It was everything Dean usually wasn’t. It was quiet, soft, broken. 

“Dean…,” She had to swallow her fear before she could utter the next words. “Are you guys okay? Where is Sam?” There was the sound of ice in a thick tumbler, then a heavy swallow.

“All gone,” his voice replied. She could hear him breathing out and then the sound of a liquid pouring. “Poof. All of them. I’m the last one here. What, uh, what ‘bout you guys?” She could hear the spark of sad hope in the tone.

“Oh, God,” she breathed out, putting her free hand over her face, swallowing to stop the tears that threatened to make a reappearance. Now was time to work, not mourn. Mourning would come later. “We, uh, the ones who didn’t….um…we’re working from the compound right now. We lost Vision and Wanda. T’Challa, Wilson, Groot…”

“Groot?” Dean huffed a laugh. “Sounds like a nightclub bouncer name.” Natasha grimaced. 

“Talking tree, actually.” There was another huff, then silence.

“What, seriously? Like those Ent things in that Lord of the Rings movie?” She could hear what sounded like him putting his feet flat suddenly, as though he’d been kicked back with his feet on a table. 

“Yeah, and we have Rocket here. He’s a racoon – don’t ask – that came in with some aliens, good ones, not that long before Thanos snapped his fingers.” She took in a deep breath and rubbed her tired eyes. 

“Snap, huh? Sounds like a Chuck thing. I’d say Gabriel, but he, uh, died buying us time to make it back through the rift and into the safety of the bunker. Not that it did a fat lot of good.” She could hear him also take a deep, shuddering breath. “Listen, uh, the bunker is…empty,” he said slowly, but she understood what he meant, having been there when it was just her and Sam and telling him it was pretty big for just two men. “Not like I want to leave the last place I saw Sammy, but I haven’t gotten anything out of researching crap here. And since we know it’s aliens and not Heaven or Hell, I need to help.” She felt a small, sad smile creep up her cheeks.

“Dean, I’ll be watching for you. Be careful on the roads, man. It’s a mess out there.” She sighed and leaned back in the chair with her arm over her eyes. “I’d come get you in the jet but there’s so much to organize here. I’m just glad most of the global communications are still up and running.” 

“Yeah, yeah. I got it. I’m gonna, um, throw together a bag and, uh, head that way, I guess. See ya’ when I see ya’.” She removed her arm and sat forward quickly.

“Hey, um, I hate to ask…,” she said before he could hang up. She heard him go still.

“Yeah? What ya’ need?”

“Can you swing by Clint’s and check on him? Maybe bring him with you?” She grimaced.

“Laura? The kids?” When she didn’t answer, he breathed out quickly. “Aw, hell. He…oh, man…yeah. I’ll stop there on my way.” Then the phone went dead before she could say anything else. 

Letting the phone dangle from her hand before hanging it up on her end, she caught the sight of Steve just standing slumped in the doorway.

“Sam? Dean? Cas?” He asked, quietly dreading the answer. 

“Dean said…,” She swallowed thickly, watching as Steve’s eyes skittered away in understanding, “they’re all gone but him. Sam, Cas, all of them. He’s, uh, going to check on Clint, then head this way, with or without him.” Steve nodded silently, shoving his hands into his pockets as he turned and left the room again. Natasha closed her eyes and gathered herself before picking up the phone to check in with Pepper for her next assignment.

*****

It was another two weeks before the gate at the compound buzzed and Rhodey glanced over at the monitor. 

“Hey, Steve,” he yelled over his shoulder as he pushed the button to open the gate. “Winchester is here.” Steve stepped through the doorway, drying his hands on a cloth hand towel. Catching a glimpse of the sleek black trunk as it slid past the camera made him smile a little and he nodded.

“Can you greet him?” He asked, thumbing back over his shoulder to where the galley was. “I’m just finishing up lunch for whoever’s here.” Rhodey just nodded and headed down to the front entrance. He couldn’t help but once again be impressed with the beautiful car as it stopped off to the side of incoming path. He did, however, have to pull back on the grimace that came over his face automatically when he saw the haggard, bedraggled man that slowly pushed the door open and slid out. He moved over to clasp hands with the hunter as soon as the door closed. 

“Dean, gotta say, man. You look like shit,” the man also known as War Machine hissed. Dean barked a sudden chuckle with a half smile. 

“Yeah, feel like it too,” he replied, leaning back to stretch out from the drive. As he headed around to the trunk for his duffel, he glanced up at the glass front of the building. “You guys got any idea on how to undo this yet?” One look at the dark-skinned man’s frown and he sighed. “Freaking aliens, man.” He yanked the duffel out, shutting the trunk. “Me and Sammy took on angels, demons, God, the Darkness…the damn Devil! And some purple alien with a complex about the population of the universe is what takes it all down.” He shook his head and headed towards the building, not waiting for the other man to follow. 

“So, not just another day in Winchester-land?” Dean turns as the familiar lilt of sarcasm greets him as soon as he’s inside the building. Seeing the platinum blond of Nat’s hair framing her tired smile as she leans against the wall, he dropped his duffel and took two fast steps to grab her in a hug that she readily accepts. He breathes shakily and she swallows down her own sorrow to offer comfort to the remaining brother who really needs help with his own. 

“Nat,” He mutters into her hair. “Not sure I’m jiving with the hair color,” he snorts as she leans back to smack his arm. Her eyes look into his questioningly after looking behind him and apparently not finding what she was hoping to. He sighed and hugged her again. “Clint, uh, is okay physically, but he needs his space. He’s helping out neighboring farms to create a commune kind of thing so they can make sure there’s water, safety, crops, working equipment. Said I’d check in with him at least once a week and he didn’t disagree. So, what can ya’ do?” He shrugged as he finally released her. She gave him a grateful smile and nod. 

“At least he hasn’t shut us out completely,” she replied. He nodded, running his hand over his lower face. 

“Dean,” Steve’s voice came from the staircase. They all looked up just as another voice came from behind them. 

“Gotta say, I was prepared to be underwhelmed but this, this makes you my new best friend.” Steve’s smile faded into a look of exasperation and both Nat and Rhodey rolled their eyes as they turned to look behind Dean, causing the hunter to turn in confusion. He was even more confused when he had to look down, way down at the walking, talking Racoon that was holding the grenade launcher from Baby’s trunk. 

Dean blinked as his brain caught up. After having spent several years fighting alongside the Avengers against aliens, robots, the British Men of Letters, and mutated creatures, having a raccoon walking on his back legs and talking to him in plain English really wasn’t that absurd. But realizing that Baby had been violated and that this…being…was holding his favorite weapon made him angry. He darted forward and snatched it from the raccoon’s hands.

“Give me that!” He stalked past the furry being and flung the doors open to get to his car, where the trunk was standing open. “You touched my car?!” He whirled around and aimed the grenade launcher at the racoon, but kept his fingers away from the firing trigger. The others had jogged out after him but all of them stopped as Dean leveled the weapon at Rocket, who merely stepped forward with a hand out to shake. 

“Hey, how ya’ doin’? I’m Rocket,” he smiled up at the man. Dean huffed a breath, threw the launcher into the trunk and slammed it shut. 

“I don’t care if you’re the Dali-freaking-yoda. You don’t touch my car!” Dean huffed again, then stormed past the raccoon, who chuckled. They turned to watch him go inside again, snatching up his duffel as he headed for the stairs to go up to the living quarters. Natasha turned a glare down onto him. He shrugged. 

“For a humie, he’s not half bad.” Nat rolled her eyes and stalked away to follow Dean. 

*****

Clint spent weeks working with his neighbors. It helped him keep his mind off of his missing family. While he knew what had happened, he did not blame the Avengers, or SHIELD. Some things just happened too quickly and without enough information to be able to effectively fight against them. It didn’t mean he was ready to just accept things though. As a former Avenger, he knew his first priority was physical action. He considered himself quite intelligent, but he’d always been more the muscle, the arrow, the shot in the dark to take out the enemy. He’d leave the thought and planning of galactic events to those who had been in the middle and had all the information. For now, he was in the middle of civilians and they needed him and his muscle, as well as his intelligence more. 

When Nat had called the first time, he’d definitely not been ready to give up, give in, and come to the compound. Mired in his own sorrow and deep into trying to help his community come together, he’d pretty much left the superhero life. She’d called a few more times and damn if it had been any easier. The last two times she’d called, he hadn’t had the energy to answer the phone. Still, it had surprised him when Dean Winchester had arrived on his farm, looking just as lost and alone as he did. Dean had briefly shared his own woeful tale, then joined into help Clint work the farmland for a few days. 

But the hunter had finally said his ‘see ya’ laters’ and headed to the compound. He’d been determined to see first-hand if there was anything that could be done. As he and his brother had been through a crapton of different, seemingly impossible situations, he thought a fresh pair of eyes and ears might be able to help out. Clint had clasped forearms with the green-eyed hunter and told him to keep him up to date, but only if they found something concrete. Dean had nodded sadly, understanding how unfounded hope could be worse than trying something that could work and failing. 


	3. Immediately After

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the first years after the snap, so much happens, but there is so little progress.

When Tony was finally able to return to Earth with the blue, half-robot woman and the superpowered blond, Dean had felt a surge of hope. They all had. They began discussing who was lost and who had escaped the snap. They compiled contacts of who might still be left and who was willing to join them if they had to go to war again. From the superheroes side, they had taken a huge hit, but from the supernatural side, it seemed the hit had been more weighted to missing hunters than missing monsters, some of whom saw this as their chance to move up the food chain. All of the remaining hunters, as well as any new ones created by the ‘after snap’ world, were focused on keeping the remaining humans safe and stopping those supernatural who were still on the side of darkness. 

Dean hadn’t been able to get ahold of any of their old contacts. No Garth, no Jody, no Claire, no Donna. According to the databases Natasha and Pepper had helped the country begin compiling, they were all among the missing. The demon world had gone silent, as had the angels. It was almost like it was when Dean had first picked Sam up at Stanford, back to basics for hunters. This left Dean as the lone remaining hunter at the Avenger compound. 

He knew the others were going through similar stresses but couldn’t help but think back to when Sam had thrown himself into the Cage with Lucifer. It had been devastating and heart-rending, but he’d known where Sam was then. Now, none of them had any idea. They all held onto the thought that Thanos’ snap had perhaps just sent them to another dimension, or a distant planet. So discussions inevitably turned to finding and facing Thanos and getting answers, and the people back. Dean, silently praying to Chuck and even Amara for help, held himself together by concentrating on this plan and he refused to be left behind. 

*****

Being in space was amazing, only overshadowed by realizing he didn’t have Sam next to him to share the experience with, to clap on the shoulder, no giraffe neck to squeeze in brotherly love. No Cas to coolly explain that somehow life on other planets wasn’t part of his ‘mission specs’. No Jack to laugh at when he asked some innocuous question about stars and planets. It was beautiful but bittersweet. Like most of them, he really hoped that Thanos would reveal that the missing weren’t really lost, only transported somewhere they could be rescued from. But like the rest of them, he really didn’t believe it would be that easy. 

Seeing the alien sky, the strange plants, and finding out that the big bad guy was a giant purple creature that looked more sad than evil, threw Dean off kilter. As angry as he was, he let the others take the lead as this was their world, per se, but it had ended in more sadness and anger. When Thor’s axe had sliced off his head and Nebula, the blue girl, had confirmed that she was only half machine because this monster had kidnapped her along with another girl and then made them fight against each other, Dean was happy he was dead, but he felt it was too quick. When he learned on the way back that the kidnapper ‘father’ had also killed her adopted sister for one of the stones used to murder half of the inhabitants of the universe, he felt bad for her. 

After they returned to Earth, none of them had any hope. He had stuck close to the compound, watching as Thor and his people said their goodbyes. Bruce, now tongue-in-cheek, called Professor Smart Hulk, disappeared from the compound more and more as he moved on to work with scientific communities around the world to do what he could to solve the problems that hadn’t gone away in the snap. Tony and Pepper hung around for a while, then left on a vacation that they didn’t return from. They still called in from their new home away from the compound, but Tony made it clear that while he was happy to offer up anything at Stark Industries to help the world, including money, real estate, employees, whatever was left, he and Pepper were out for now. 

Okoye began to report in from Wakanda and the surrounding nations as she and M’Baku banded together to clear up the chaos and make sure life continued. Rocket and Nebula felt entirely out of place, but having lost the rest of their family, spent most of their time in orbit around earth or nearby, keeping the evil that still existed amongst the stars from targeting their new home, as they were both now permanent residents in the Avengers compound. Carol, of course, headed out into space to help other planets because as she put it:

“There are a lot of other planets in the universe. And unfortunately, they didn't have” the Avengers or any kind of superheroes like Earth did. 

Steve took it upon himself to work with Rhodey on getting the country back to some semblance of normal, that infrastructures were put back into place to keep the lights on and people fed and housed. Steve also helped put together support groups for the survivors and attended when he could, to give others hope that life goes on. Dean began training with Natasha, learning new skills that he hoped he could teach the hunters still out there, as he knew that was his place. That was where he belonged. 

*****

There was still so much chaos, like watercraft and ships with no one to steer or manage them. Like vehicles with no owners, and houses with no residents. Homelessness became a thing of the past but hunger became an issue for more than just the poor. For a while, things seemed out of control and fixing the power grid over here didn’t quite solve the leaking dam over there. Slowly, over time, things came under control and people began living different lives than before the snap. The criminal world was in shambles, and new leaders, new gangs rose up. Just like the supernatural, vampires banded together, as did werewolves, and other species that tended to work better in groups. And the monsters no longer hid in the shadows. With the population cut down so drastically, they created their own gangs and even went to work with some of the human criminal organizations. 

Those creatures and being that came on the side of peace, still pretended to be human or made contacts with humans they could trust so they could work together to restore what they could. Dean had met a few of these and put them in contact with one of the hunters he knew was sympathetic, and some of the supernatural joined the new hunter’s network to save good humans and the non-violent creatures and stop the bad ones when they could. 

Before Dean realized it, over a year had come and gone and the only time any of them even discussed finding a way to reverse the snap was when there was some breakthrough in science or a witch or a sorcerer found something that hinted at reversing time, or something along that line. But none of them panned out. No one could even fathom where they’d find the amount of cosmic power needed to undo the event. And as far as any of them knew, God and Amara had been caught up in it, as there was not a peep of them appearing or responding in any way, shape, or form. 

As far as Dean could tell, while it had been revealed to Earth that there was life on other planets, which opened up so much, it also caused earthlings to come together globally as they realized that the destruction had come from off-world. Carol popped in occasionally, but the news was just as grim if not more so on the other worlds. Clint stopped calling in and only answered Natasha’s or Dean’s calls every once in a while, and eventually, he went completely silent. No communication. Natasha refused to give up on him though. She and Rhodey responded to reports in other countries and sometimes ventured out to see how they could assist if they thought they were needed. 

All of them had different methods for downtime, as well. Sometimes, they got together for movie night, or just dinner. Mostly, though, they split up and did their own thing. Dean was never really sure what the others did, but he trained with Natasha for a while before finally heading back to the bunker to provide research and hunter backup to the surviving protectors of Earth. The bunker was quiet, so he found himself spending time in Sam’s room, or Cas’s, or Jack’s. It took him weeks before he could bring himself to go through any of it. 

Part of the reason was that as he approached any of their rooms, he heard their phantom voices in his head, which made him flinch away at first, then made him want to go in to see if he could summon more memories of them into his head. 

‘Hi, Dean,’ phantom Jack said. ‘Sam gave me a list of shows on Netflix, but he was unsure what I should start with. What would you suggest?’

‘Dean,’ ghost Cas, ‘we are in need of supplies and Sam is again buried in research. Can you tell me which bread he prefers?’

‘Hey, Dean,’ Sam’s memory called out. ‘Did you take my Stanford hoodie? It’s the only thing I still have from then and you better not have gotten blood on it.’

He found Sam’s journal, as well as the box Sam kept his ‘treasures’ in. In Jack’s room, he’d found the comics that he’d seen Sammy buy as part of the ‘let him be a teenager’ push for Jack to learn to be human. There were the comics based on the Avengers and he got lost in the ones about the X-men. Scott was the bomb. He also found the Batman ones, obviously not the same Batman he’d grown up with, but there was Superman, and Wonder Woman. He found one that was more worn than the rest and read through it several times before it clicked why it appeared Jack had loved this one so much. The hero was actually an anti-hero. No superpowers. Just a human in a costume. Not doing evil, but not overly righteous. 

Once it became obvious that he wasn’t going to find anything himself in the archives, as that had been Sam’s bailiwick, and he realized that Sam, Tony, and Bruce had digitized most of it so that the magic and hunter community had access, he closed himself off from the outside world. He still took on local hunts and went out for groceries, but he still felt he wasn’t doing enough. When it came to him what direction his future should take, he spent the first few days planning, and the next few weeks preparing. 

When Natasha’s calls to him went unanswered, she decided to go herself to check on him. And found the bunker dark and silent. Baby was gone from the garage, but it was obvious that Dean wasn’t there and hadn’t been there for a while. She closed her eyes as she locked the bunker back up and headed back to the Avenger compound. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's rolling again!


	4. Vaguely Familiar

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> New and hold faces pop up where unexpected.

The five-year anniversary of the snap had passed quietly. All around the globe, the shock and trauma had given way to people slowly unlocking and picking up the pieces. The superheroes were working well with the new hunter’s network, officially incorporated as Hunter Central and overseen by a former law enforcement officer who acted as intermediary between the hunters and government officials headquartered in what was left of the U.S. Natasha and the head of the hunters had held many video and phone calls to coordinate their actions when needed but had yet to meet. They were on a video call when Rhodey had pinged in, having Natasha conference him in as his news concerned them both. 

“Where are you?” Nat asked the dark-skinned man who had removed the War Machine suit for the call. He looked thinner than ever and tired. They all did, really. Rhodey sighed. 

“Hey to you too, Nat,” he said. He couldn’t help the small twitch of a smile as he acknowledged the other participant. “Jody, been a bit.” 

“Colonel,” the dark-haired former sheriff said with her own small smile. When he opened his mouth, she held up a hand and closed her eyes with a nod. “Sorry, James. How are you?”

“Tired, but hanging in. You?” Jody Mills chuckled sadly. 

“Same. Good to see you anyway.” Rhodey’s smile grew a little. Nat hid her smirk. The two had been borderline flirty since their first meeting and she had no doubt if they ever met in person, any meal they had would be just the two of them, no one else invited.

“So, what have you found?” Nat broke in as gently as she could. Jody huffed a small laugh and Rhodey nearly blushed before he sighed again. 

“I’m in Mexico. The Federales found a room full of bodies. Bunch of cartel guys, a few beheaded vamps. One of those wraith things. Looks like none of them had a chance to even get a shot off or draw blood.” Nat and Jody shared a glance.

“Probably a rival gang,” Nat offered, shifting her eyes back to the ex-military man, who shook his head and gave her a slight bitchface, something he’d perfected after years of knowing Tony, but still didn’t even close to the ones Sam was known for. If the tug of memory of the missing man pained either woman, none of them showed it. 

“Except it isn’t.” Nat and Jody shared a more pointed look this time, eyes widening. “It’s definitely Barton and yes, it looks like either Winchester is still with him or came right behind him. What they’ve done here. What they have been doing the last few years…” He broke off as he noticed both of them grimaced sadly. “I mean, the scene they left…” Jody wiped a tear away quickly as Natasha blinked rapidly to hold her own back. “I gotta tell you. There’s a part of me that doesn’t even want to find either one of them.” 

“Natasha,” Jody said softly, sniffling. Nat just nodded and took a somber bite of the sandwich in front of her, rubbing her forehead with her other hand. “They’re both hurting.”

“And taking it out on anyone who sticks an evil nose out enough to get their attention,” Rhodey commented. 

“Will you find out where they may be going next?” The Black Widow asked suddenly, cutting him off after she’d swallowed what felt like a masticated lump of cardboard. The cold woman that Clint had first brought into SHIELD was not for now. There had been so much happening over the last years, but to know that her best friend and her ex’s brother had both had such solid losses that they had gone rogue, taking out their pain on others. Granted, the ‘others’ were always the bad guys, but it was far more brutal than Natasha had ever seen from Clint. Dean had fallen back into the nearly sadistic ways he’d been during the whole Mark of Cain thing, but it was more controlled. 

“Nat-,” the man started. Nat cut him off.

“Please.” Jody and Nat said at the same time, both softly, but pleading. Rhodey almost rolled his eyes. Having Jody ask him so pleadingly was probably enough, but to have his long-time friend, the Black Widow, a previously merciless killer, ask him with a broken look, there was no way he could resist. His shoulders slumped. 

“Okay,” he replied reluctantly. Both women flashed him a grateful smile. He saluted casually before logging out of the call. 

“I think it’s time I visited this compound of yours,” Jody said once they had both shaken off the flood of emotion. Natasha smiled broadly.

“Let me know when you’re close and one of us will meet you at the gate.”

“Will do,” Jody said as she leaned forward and logged off as well. 

“Be careful,” Nat said to the silence, before the first tears began to fall freely. She sobbed almost silently, but dropped the rest of the sandwich and used both hands to cover her face. 

“You know,” Steve said softly from the doorway, “I’d offer to cook you dinner, but you seem pretty miserable already.” She wiped her tears away, taking a few deeper breaths. Steve was slumped against a bookshelf, looking pretty miserable himself. 

“You here to do your laundry?” Steve huffed and shrugged one shoulder.

“And to see a friend.” Natasha gave him a soft smile of gratitude as she sat back in the chair, laying her head against the headrest. 

“Clearly, your friend is fine.” Her mild glare just made him return a half-smile. “Besides, Jody Mills is heading this way. We haven’t met in person, but since she’s currently heading up Hunter Central, we both figured it was time. Sam and Dean had talked about her occasionally. Apparently, according to Dean, she’s pretty badass ‘for a woman.’” She did the finger quotes on that and rolled her eyes fondly. Steve chuckled.

“Yeah, sounds like him when his mouth runs faster than his brain,” Steve said. “Let me know when she’s in town and I’ll make sure to be here to thank her for all the hard work.” Natasha nodded. Before Steve could open his mouth to say anything further, Natasha cleared her throat and turned back to the interface built into the desk. 

“I’m thinking in a day or two,” Nat said, glancing at him, then back to the desk. Steve stood quietly for a moment.

“You know, I saw a pod of whales when I was coming up the bridge earlier,” he finally said, a softness in his voice that made her stop and turn to face him again.

“In the Hudson?” He smiled and shrugged.

“There’s few ships, cleaner water.” He looked out the window at the nearly perfect, clear, blue sky. She huffed.

“You know, if you’re about to tell me to look on the bright side,” she started, “I’m going to hit you in the head with the rest of my peanut butter sandwich.” She smiled jokingly at him and he responded in kind. 

“Sorry, force of habit.” He tossed his jacket over the back of the chair opposite her, then plopped down. “You know, I keep telling everybody they should move on and…grow.” He watched Nat watching him. “Some do. But not us.” He tilted his head at her, but she tensed. 

“If I move on, who does this?” She gestured vaguely around her and then at the console where Steve caught glimpses of reports from different agencies, some news, and some communications from their allies in space were tracking across the screen. He took a deep breath.

“Maybe it doesn’t need to be done.” His eyes went back to her face, trying to read her thoughts perhaps. She sighed softly, her own eyes moving over all the data, then up to him. 

“I used to have nothing. And then I got this. This job, this family.” She smiled softly at Steve. “And I was…I was better because of it. And even though…even though they’re gone….I’m still trying to be better.” Steve chuckled, looking down at his hands. 

“I think we both need to get a life.” Nat chuckled back at him. 

“You first.” 

Steve nodded, then got up and headed back down the corridor, making the mental note to see if he could coax Jody into hanging around for a bit so Nat would have another woman to talk to. 

*****

In an amazing feat of luck, the timing of Jody’s truck pulled up to the compound gate two days later was extraordinary. Right behind a white panel van that blocked the gate. There was a relatively taller man with dark hair bouncing around, waving at the security cameras, yelling something. As she came to a stop, he turned to face her and gave her a confused look. With a sigh of apprehension, she pulled her SUV to the side and stepped out, her hand on a sidearm strapped to her waist. 

“Sir, can I help you?” The man gaped at her, then pointed to the camera and the compound then gave her a confused smile. 

“Um, hi. I’m Scott Lang,” he said as he held out a hand to the armed woman, who nodded at him suspiciously, but didn’t remove her hand from the butt of her weapon. “Um, Antman?” He asked her hopefully. Jody squinted, then let her hand drop away. 

“Little guy who got really big?” She asked and he beamed at her.

“Yes, yes, thank you!” He turned to the security camera and then pointed at Jody as he returned to yelling at it. “See? She gets it. I had a mask on so yeah, you wouldn’t recognize me…” He broke off as the gate buzzed and began rolling back. He jumped in joy, then hugged Jody suddenly. “Let’s go!” He jumped into the van and drove through the gate without waiting for a response. 

Jody tilted her head in perplexation but squinted after him, then at the camera, then threw up her hands, walking back to her SUV. Without pausing, she followed the van through the gate and up the path to the front entrance of the Avenger compound. 

*****

The last body thumped to the floor as the sword came to a halt back at a ready position. The man in black, with the subtle gold trim on his outfit, paused to listen for further danger. His black hood was pulled all the way forward, and the lower mask that covered all of his face except his eyes had not slipped. The blue/gray eyes took in the bodies closest to him, but the only sounds he caught were his own light breathing and a slightly heavier breathing coming from the other end of the warehouse. A flick of a glance in that direction, taking in the leather-clad figure with a red hood obscuring his face crouched over another corpse, and he relaxed just enough to let the sword hang by his side. The figure pulled up on the the silver blade and allowed the blood to drip off the tip as the glowing blue marks on the humanoid on the ground faded and a final sigh of air escaped as it died. 

The red hood turned, revealing a full red mask, but the mesh slots that covered his eyes were turned in the other’s direction. The red hood went up in silent question and the black hood nodded back, just as silently. 

The next moves were just as coordinated as they both stood up fully and wiped down their blades, tossing the bloodied strips of cloth torn from the corpses back over them. Both sheathed their blades after checking each corpse for signs of life. Then, with another silent nod, they spent a moment searching the warehouse for something only they knew to look for. The man in the red hood and mask tapped on the side of the filing cabinet that had been shoved in the far back corner where an old, broken desk was splintered against the wall. The man in black and gold lifted his eyes in acknowledgement. There was a subtle hand signal from the hand in the leather glove where it looked like it gripped a file folder, and they both lifted their chins in another silent signal. 

There was the sound of sirens approaching, so they both turned towards the back entrance. The man in black leapt up the wall and disappeared into the shadows before slipping out a bent vent. The man in leather slipped out the back door and stuck to the shadows as he dodged police and pedestrians alike. Before the first police car had even come to a complete halt in front of the warehouse, both men were ghosts, long gone. 

When War Machine arrived a minute later, landing just inside where the police would cordon off, he knew he was already too late to catch up to them. This was the same as the last 13 times. Not even the suit’s computer or the city’s cameras ever caught more than a glimpse of the duo. It was rare that you found one without the other these days, but damned if they weren’t silently, but surely, taking down the organized crime that the police or military were unable to get to. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really, really had to do this. 
> 
> https://www.reddit.com/r/Supernatural/comments/9t1r8s/jensen_ackles_red_hood_costume_jas_instagram/

**Author's Note:**

> This story is currently on hiatus. I apologize but I don't have the mental capacity to do it justice. Once all the earthshattering CRAP settles, I promise, I will finish. Hugs and be safe out there!


End file.
